Walking on (unfrozen) water: The secret lives of the very famous

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Rap and I, we both have
always had a love-hate relationship.

The thing is that I
appreciate this music genre for its ability to enable the raw expressions of
emotions, best captured in the bars being created. Artists like Lauryn Hill
create such beautiful music through Rap, that one cannot help but be
captivated.

However, I have also
cringed at the depiction of rap music as pseudo-violent, with excessive
swearing, name-calling and flat out insults hurled around, as ‘art’.

I guess that this could
be considered as some form of ‘artistry’ and is indeed the drawing force for
other people. For me however, this side of rap scares the whole of my soul.

(Like listening to it, my
hands would just rise and start punching my face in solidarity with the ‘anger’
of the lyrics)

Growing up, no one better
represented this side of rap for me than Eminem.

In my adolescent years,
he was more or less the face of rap music itself. Which to me, was a really
scary face.

When he was not cursing
out everyone’s wives and daughters with his lyrics, he was picking unnecessary
fights with other artists, and hurling invectives at them in his lyrics.

Yet, he kept topping the
charts, and selling out his albums.

Granted, he is a hugely
talented artist, who also told real stories with his music.

But asides “Thank you”
(with Dido) and “Love the way you lie” (with Rihanna), I would usually pass
over any of Eminem’s songs.

Recently however, I have
noticed a subtle shift in Eminem’s style of music.

In his more recent songs,
there is a subtle shift in his style. He takes on societal issues, and weaves
them into his verses. In his song “Revival”, released 15 October 2017 (which
also shares the same name with the album in which it is featured), Eminem fearlessly
tackles the rising racism in the United States, and the sacrifice of Kaepernick
as a scape-goat, under the guise of “patriotism”.

The power of “Revival” is
nothing however compared to the magic of “Walk on Water”, also a part of the “Revival”
album, and in which song he features Beyonce Knowles.

(Yaaay!!)

For starters, (while
there were droplets here and there of invectives) Eminem’s voice now is
waaaaaaay calmer than the younger versions of his music. It is as though he has
matured through the expression of his voice, and the words of his verses are
quite audible enough to understand the message they embody.

And then… Beyonce is GOLD.

Having her on any piece
of art is great guarantee that its reach would be wide. And it IS Beyonce; she
has established a level of excellence quite unparalleled with by the majority
of her contemporaries. Her vocals on “Walk on Water’ was no exception.

The musical arrangement
is also easier; spitting bars in three verses, generously interspersed with
Beyonce’s vocals in the chorus, which makes it more easily appealable.

Beyond the lyrical
representation and musical arrangement however is the content of the song. Its
verses reiterate a very powerful message:
all man IS yet man.

In this day and age of
social media, where “following” famous folks is the norm, we humans invariably
catapult the objects of our “followership’ into god status; hanging on their
every word, aiming to emulate the seemingly extraordinary lives they live and
(literally) believing that they walk on water.

This song does well to
demystify the (human-created) mystery around public-figures, in explaining that
they are as subject to the frailty of human nature as the next individual.

Beyonce sings “I walk on water, but I’m no Jesus. I only
walk on water when it’s frozen”

Eminem raps “God’s given me all this, still I feel no
different regardless… if only they knew it’s a façade and exhausting”.

The deep message in this
song is that while public figures live in the spotlight, the rest of us
‘normal’ people need not live our lives by holding our standards out to what
they depict.

Their seemingly
extraordinary lives are only livable, by virtue of the resources they have. And
their lives ARE far from perfect.

These stars are not as
‘supernatural’ as they are made out to seem. It’s the buzz, which has to be
created, for them to maintain their stardom status that keeps all the ‘razzmatazz’ in our faces. But this does
not make them any different from the human next door.

Yes, the most of them
have had to work their way to the top, which if you worked as they did, you
could also reach your own top; whatever “top” may signify for you.

This song’s reference to the
artist being able to walk on water only when it is frozen signifies the reality
however that they are able to live the life they seem to live, only by virtue
of the advantage they have. This life however is nothing to envy, if you knew
the struggles they dealt with behind scenes to maintain it.

In your case, you could
live the life you wanted using the particular skills or advantages at your
disposal.

But to crave Beyonce’s
ability to go back to a size 0.5 barely two weeks after birthing twins is being
quite unrealistic, except you are able to hire a dozen nannies as she did, and
have an inbuilt gym in your mansion, with Dr. Ray of 90210 at your beck and
call.

That is the message of
this song, “Walk on Water”.

Public figures can only
play to the gallery by virtue of the positions they occupy, or what they portray.
But they are just as human as the person next door.

So that even as we daily “follow”
people, we should consciously remember that they are as human as us, can make
mistakes just like us, and ultimately, we should be guided by our own inner
convictions rather than merely hang on the words of other mortals.

Because like the song rightly
preaches, it is only Jesus that can walk on unfrozen water.

Paz,

Meg.

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4
comments

Me I'm just surprised you listen to rap music sometimes. I was thinking you'd be a SIA, John Legend kinda person but it's Eminem. His Revival album is dope, alot of folks still sleeping on it and want the old Em back but shii be late. I love this new matured Em.